Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and I love this season of the year…
That’s because it’s harvest time. I have so many memories of times on our farm in Maryland. The evenings are getting slightly cooler, aren’t they… the corn has been harvested, and my sister Jay is probably right now picking what she’s planted in her garden. All summer long and around the last few weeks of August, my sister, Jay, will still be reaping green beans and picking Silver Queen corn, and plucking Big Boy tomatoes, and summer squash, and oh, my favorite memories of all, those wonderful late summertime dinners… grilling her vegetables on the barbecue! Harvest time, for me, is such a great season – you plant something small, something so tiny, way back when in spring… and you probably even forget about it and then all of a sudden you’ve got this bounty, this abundance of fruit and vegetables that taste so great! Jay may have worked hard over those seeds back in the spring, but this season, she will happily reap what she has sown – steamed buttered squash and grilled corn-on-the-cob. Oh, boy!
It would certainly be a surprise though if, back in March and April, when Jay planted squash in the ground and now, months later, she saw watermelon coming up. Or if she planted tomatoes and beans started growing. That’s silly. That would never happen. It’s a fact that you reap what you sow. Now, think of this principle from the Bible’s point of view. It would be a surprise if melons came up where you sowed squash, but it would not be a surprise if you gossiped about your friends and soon found that you had no friends! Friend, we reap what we sow, and every action produces results. If you plant with reckless abandon, it’ll come back to bite you, for Galatians 6:7 tells us: if you sow to please your own desires, you reap a crop of sorrow. If you plant to please God, you’ll reap joy and everlasting life.
And then – get this – there’s this extra little phrase that the apostle Paul adds when he writes the Galatians about this principle of sowing and reaping, because he includes a warning, he says, “Do not be deceived.” There is a good reason he said that because there is always a time lapse between the season of sowing and harvest time. We could easily be deceived if we kept gossiping and experienced no repercussions… we could lead ourselves to think that our gossiping doesn’t seem to be harming anyone; it has no adverse impact; is harmless – after all, nobody knows; it has been a long time; my words haven’t come back to bite me; so… everything’s cool, everything’s okay; and what I’m doing must not be all that bad. But friend, don’t be thinking like that, because it’s silly. It just doesn’t happen. You do reap what we sow, period!
We might be able to fool ourselves for awhile, thinking that our self-centered actions will not lead to any harm; we may deceive ourselves into thinking that those actions will yield something of eternal value, but not so. Numbers 32:23 says, “Be sure your sins will find you out.” What seems harmless, believe me, will hunt you down and bite you back. So friend, stay on the growing side of godliness this season – plant seeds of love and kindness which will always reap something grand and good; patience and integrity will always produce a bountiful harvest in the lives of your family, friends, and the best harvest of all, it will produce the character of Christ in your life! That is sowing what you’re reaping in the best kind of way… the kind that glorifies the Father in heaven and multiplies the bounty of Christ’s love right here on earth.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends